Hi everyone my name is monica and i guess i finally decided to make an introduction after having lurked on and off in the forums.

to be honest i have no idea what im doing. I've been overweight since like birth. no joke, i have pics of me on a stroller bending under my weight. i'll put em up when i find em. my mom was the kind of person who fed me until i was full enough to not move. but uh i turned 21 about two weeks ago and i hadnt completely noticed, or i just didnt want to face the fact that i've lost my chin. well not necessarily my chin but the little bone line that shows that your face is not part of your neck. you know? my neck is now one continuous thing with eyes and a mouth. its kinda weird.

but uh.. i've been doing this whole dieting thing for forever and a while back i decided to quit because i have little to no willpower to eat things that dont taste good or to work out and get no results or do both at the same time and be unhappy. that and my theory that no one would love me if i was fat was kind of disproved. so after a night of taking pictures where my face took up more than half the shot and made my bfs face look significantly smaller, i decided i really cant do this anymore. im unhappy with myself and its really affecting my relationship with him.

i dont know what im doing though. i have no idea where to start because i've failed so much before and im scared that i wont get to where i need to be in order to be at least a bit happier with myself. i dont know how much to eat, what to eat, what exercise to do at all that will work for me. so i hope to find some ideas on here that will help me. i hope to start in january once i have a better idea of what the **** im doing. anyway, hello.

Hi Monica!

One of the best things you'll find out here is that you can lose weight and NOT eat things that don't taste good (I'm an unrepentant foodie...my food tastes good now, better even than the junk I was eating before...).

So, onto choosing a plan. I'd recommend you take a look around here...we have many groups by eating plan (Calorie counting, Weight Watchers, etc), and you can browse individual forums to get ideas. As for what exercise to do...the short answer is "anything more than you're doing now". Granted, eventually your results are likely to be better if you do some cardio and some weight training, but take baby steps for now and just keep moving.

We have a wonderful 20-somethings forum here too - you might want to pay a visit there as well.

I'm glad you've found us and I can't wait to get to know you better.

Hi Monica!

(Officially )

We're glad to see any lurkers start posting.

The name "3 Fat Chicks on a Diet" is actually a little misleading, since the members here tend not to actually be on diets. Most of us, I would say, enjoy the fact that we're changing our lives entirely. We're never returning to the way we used to eat, or the way we used to be sedentary. Diets end. Completely changing our lives doesn't.

So since we think of this as changing our lives forever, and not just a temporary fix, we have to accept some ideas. Number one, why eat yucky food? All food that we eat we should enjoy to some extent. It doesn't mean that we eat a candy bar every single day, but why shouldn't our normal foods be healthy and taste good? You found out yourself that yucky tasting food doesn't make us want to eat healthfully. It just doesn't work. So don't do that anymore. Find healthy foods that DO taste yummy. Cook up your favorite recipes using healthier ingredients, adding in a few more vegetables or fruits. It's small changes, added up, and over time, that are going to turn into habits, that are going to keep you on the right course.

This is going to be for the long-haul. It means there may be times that we get stuck. (I, for example, have been on a plateau for the past 2 months, granted my own fault, but I'm not giving up. I'm still going on!) We cannot just say "to heck with it" or we will never get where we want to go!

You say you don't know how much to eat, what to eat, etc. There is a wealth of knowledge on this site that has far surpassed anything I've read in books, or seen at my WW meetings. And EVERYONE here wants you to succeed. Everyone else's success is our own success. If they can do it, we can do it. If we can do it, we know they can do it, too!

Let's start with something easy. Calorie counting. In the Diet Central section there's a group of calorie counters. There are some posted notes there about how to figure out how much to eat and of what. It's free, and it's just adding some numbers together each day. Tracking what you eat. That's it.

With exercising (or more activity) you're going to have to be the judge. Has it been a long time (or never) since you've moved around on purpose? Then start slow. Very slow. Just 5 or 10 minutes. Once a day a few times a week. Then build up. Once you've got 10 minutes three days a week, move it to 15 minutes four days a week. Within a few months you may surprise yourself doing almost 30 minutes every single day. It can be as cheap as walking outdoors, or using a treadmill at a gym, or dancing in your room to music, or following some videos.

Keep in mind, you CAN DO THIS! Don't let doubt overwhelm you. If you feel like it might, jump onto 3FC and read some goal stories. Or chat with some friends here

All the best of success!